Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 40:8 “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.”
I desired to be a full-time missionary living abroad. I went on the World Race.
I desired to work with an international mission’s organization.I worked for Samaritan’s Purse.
I desired to go to Thailand. I am in Thailand.
I desired to lead and minister to missionaries. I am leading short-term missionaries.
These are a few examples of things in which have been desires in my heart that that Lord has orchestrated and fulfilled. All of them were desires God put in my heart. All were paths God put my feet upon. This past year has been like no other. I have continued to draw myself and be drawn closer to the Lord in so many ways. I have witnessed his faithfulness every single day. I am so undeserving and am so humbled, but it is actually HIS desire to love us. Luke 1:79 says that Jesus will be the one “to guide our feet into the path of peace”. I have experienced peace every day.
It is all a mystery. Despite the peace and the certainty, I continue to have no idea what is next. It is easy to have desires and to assume their purpose, their season and their specifics. Since I was a young child, I always thought I would be living abroad as a missionary. But when God put a desire to work state-side in my heart; I then thought that was the call on my life. Then there was a new desire for Thailand and to be abroad. Needless to say, I was confused.
Each time I have a desire, I assume it is God speaking over the course of my life. I continue to realize that he is mostly only speaking into the next step of my life.
Before coming to Thailand I thought I knew what I wanted to do once I returned home in December. I thought I would get my Master’s in Christian Counseling and work with a state-side mission organization. God had put a desire to train and minister to missionaries. (I wrote a previous blog post about this in more detail.)
But once I accepted this ‘role’ to lead a short-term mission trip, I questioned my desire to train and counsel missionaries after this trip. This was a very terrifying and humbling moment.
I thought I knew the next step would be directly connected with the previous, but once I stepped into the current, I questioned the next. I was reminded that the accumulation of all of those desires might have been to bring me to Thailand and to lead this trip; not what I had assumed. I had assumed a different season, different purposes and different specifics. But in that moment of realization, I was reminded of God’s constant faithfulness and my need to rely on him for direction.
Every step has been so full of joy and life and peace. Psalm 16:11 says, “You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” This Psalm is so true in my life.
When I throw away my plans, my expectations and surrender my heart and my desires to the Lord; he reveals to me desires he has for my life and he leads me to the path of fulfillment.
If you are not living a life of joy and peace, I encourage you to ask the Lord to search and reveal to you your heart and your own purposes. Are they the purposes of God? God has put Godly desires in your heart which lead to life. Commit your ways to him and he will make your path straight.
Psalm 119:32 “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free."
Is your heart set free?
